Too Late
by Jameiko
Summary: umm X/A....little after OAHAF, Xena hears that Ares is dead and goes to see if it's true.


****

Too Late

by Lily

Disclaimer: Have I ever told you that I don't own these people? Well if I haven't, now you know. Don't own 'em never will.

Language: Maybe a little swearing

Violence: Yeah

Sex: nope

Subtext: Not in my stories!

Rating: PG

Timeline: A little bit after Old Ares Had a Farm

Summary: Xena hears that Ares is dead and goes to see it it's true.

Dedications: To Astra becaes she's cool, a great freinds, helped me with this fic b/c she was supportive and got me to start a mesage board, which is a very out of charatr thing for me to do. Yaysies Astra!!!!!!!!!! ^_^

Thanks: To Amber, who edited this for me, and who is also a great friend who puts up with me. Muchos gracias! I couldn't have done this without your help. Yaysies Amber!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Feedback: Yeah, that's always good, even if you wanna really tell me off!

Xena was riding Argo II down a rain soaked path. Argo II was going as fast as she could but the mud was slowing her down. Gabrielle was in Potediea with her sister Lila. Xena told her this was something she needed to do by herself and that she's send for her once she got the truth. She still couldn't believe Ares was dead. Many thoughts were flying through her head as she urged Argo II to go faster. The memories of last night washed over her.

*****

She had been sitting with Gabrielle and Lila at a tavern in Potediea . A group of thugs entered the room. She heard their drunken voices, bragging about how many people they had killed. A man, who identified himself as Philiclus, began speaking in his coarse voice about a recent murder.

"He was insane! He thought that he had been a god!" the man bellowed.

She turned to see the man showing his comrades a necklace. Ares' necklace. Rough laughter came to her ears, but she hadn't cared. 

**

Now she stood toe to toe with Philicus, who had the necklace. She put the pinch on him, and began questioning....no, demanding answers.

**

She had felt someone pulling on her arm… she turned to see Gabrielle, standing next to her with a worried look on her face. She pointed at the man wriggling on the floor in front of her, blood coming out of his mouth.

"He's about to die!" 

"Let him! Let the bastard die!" she replied in a voice that she almost didn't recognize as her own. Xena shoved the mad to the floor and let Gabrielle remove the pinch. She could hear him gasping for air as she went to get her things.

**

Within moments, she was out in the drenching rain, mounting Argo II, preparing to find out exactly what had happened. Lightening lit up the sky and she heard the crash of thunder.

Gabrielle and Lila had tried to stop her. 

"Wait for morning!" called Lila.

"At least let me come with you Xena! You can't go alone." 

"I'll send for you later Gabrielle. I told you." She had said shortly, having heard the bard saying pretty much the same thing non-stop for the past ten minutes.

**

After saying her goodbyes, Argo II had galloped down the path, with the rain still pouring down on her. A few unbidden tears fell silently from her eyes.

*****

Finally after much riding, an old farm came into view. It was the farm were Xena and her brothers had spent a lot of time visiting their grandparents when they had been children. Many of her fondest memories had taken place at this farm, during her childhood. It hadn't been so long ago when this farm was filled with life. Now it seemed foreboding and unearthly quiet. Xena noticed all the chickens were gone. She could practically hear Ares voice as she recalled their last conversation.

"Once I'm out of chickens I might just move on."

"Well, you should drag it out. You know you might find the kind of peace here that you won't find anywhere else. Who knows, maybe I'll come visit you sometime."

"Or I could give this whole rural thing a good try."

Then Ares leaned in to kiss her, remembered Xena. She didn't let him; instead she said...

A familiar bark interrupted her thoughts. Horace came running up to her with his tail wagging furiously.

"Good boy." She said in a soft voice as she petted the dog. She walked into the house; it was empty and unkempt. Looked like no one had been there for a while; but then again, when was Ares ever thrilled with the idea of doing 'mortal things' like cleaning. 

"Ares!" she called but got no reply. *Maybe he left* she thought. *And he left Horace with that neighbor woman.* 

Xena continued to search the house until she came to the bedroom. It was the same room where she, Gabrielle and Ares had shared the bed. At the time it had been a bit awkward, but now the memory brought a smile to her face. She was about to leave when she noticed something. Sitting by the bed under a pile of rubbish, was Ares' gauntlet. Xena doubted that Ares would leave his gauntlet behind. But then again, it was only gauntlet.

Horace suddenly barked and went to the other gauntlet, picked it up and ran out of the room. Xena followed him outside as watched the dog dug a hole to bury the gauntlet. After the dog had sufficiently covered the remaining gauntlet, she went to see what else was buried there. She found both of his gauntlets, a hammer, a few rags, and Ares' sword. Fear filled Xena as she wiped mud off the sword. She knew Ares would never leave without his sword. She began to finger the necklace that she had taken from the man at the bar. Ares must be dead. She needed to know what happened to him. She slowly got up, clutching Ares' sword, and then she called for the one person she knew could tell her what had happened.

"Aphrodite!" *She'll know what happened. Who knows maybe Ares is away somewhere. A local bar perhaps.* Xena thought.

"Aphrodite!" she called again. Still no answer or any sign that the goddess heard her cries. Xena decided to try once more.

"APHRODITE!!!!" Finally, a well-known voice answered. 

"I'm sorry, but I can't help you."

"Aphrodite! You have to help me. You have to tell me where Ares is." Xena was getting annoyed… why wouldn't Aphrodite help her?

"You promise not to go all 'Xena, Killer of Gods' on me?" the voice echoed down to her.

"I promise. And if I had wanted to kill you I would have done it already." She coolly replied. "Aphrodite, this is serious. Now show your self and tell me where Ares is!"

"Alright." Then a pink and gold light appeared, leaving the Goddess of Love in it's place. "You wanna know where Ares is? Come with me."

She reluctantly held out her hand for Xena to take. It wasn't that she had thought Xena would try to hurt her, after all Xena was her friend. Aphrodite just didn't want to be the one to explain what had happened. She sighed as Xena took her hand and they stepped into the aether. 

Within moments they were both standing on Mt. Olympus. It was a lot different from how Xena remembered it. The remains of her fight with Athena a year ago were now gone. And like Ares' farm, Olympus had seen livelier days. The same unsettling silence seems to hang over Olympus as well.

"Alright where is he?" Xena asked in a calm voice, then asked, "He's been up on Olympus all this time?"

"Well, not exactly. I brought Ares up here a few days a go. But there's more to it than that." Aphrodite's eyes fell to the floor as she began think of to tell Xena what had happened. She couldn't remember a time when she had been at such a loss for words.

"What? Aphrodite tell me!" Xena now tightly held the goddess's right arm and grasped Ares' still muddy sword in her other hand.

"I didn't want to have to be the one to tell you but......" Xena let go of her arm.

"But what?" Xena asked, but as she looked at Aphrodite's face she knew what had happened. "Gods, it's true isn't it? He's really dead?" Aphrodite nodded and began to put her arm around Xena's shoulder to comfort her. 

"Tell me how it happened. I saw the man that claimed to have killed him, and I know he would have been no match for Ares, mortal or not. I need to know what really happened."

Tears were no falling from Aphrodite's eyes and she looked as if she were about to go into fits of crying. "I can't tell you." She spoke in a voice that was almost inaudible. "But I'll show you." She waved her hand and a portal appeared in front of them. Xena watched in horror at what she saw.

*****

Philicus, the thug from the tavern, was sneaking though the kitchen window on a rainy night, then he began searching the house for anything of value. Finally he reached Ares' room but he tripped over some junk on the floor. Ares was then jolted awake by the sound of the man's fall. The intruder, realizing that he had been caught, started to attack Ares. 

******

Xena could hardly bare to watch as the fight unfolded but she refused to let herself turn away. Out of the corner of her eye she saw that Aphrodite had her face buried in her hands and that her body was trembling as she sobbed. She then turned her full attention back to the portal.

*****

Ares had been winning the fight and everything still seemed to be in his favor. He then knocked Philicus down with a single blow to the nose. He wiped the blood from his face and looked as if he were about to run away, knowing that he didn't stand a chance against Ares; but then a smirk covered his face as he pulled out his sword. The weapon now gave him more of an upper hand against Ares.

Meanwhile, Ares began searching the cluttered bedroom floor for a weapon of his own. He reached for his sword but only found the an empty sheath. Philicus laughed as he plunged his sword into Ares' stomach. The former god's eyes widened with as a look of shock and pain swept over his dark features. Slowly his body fell to the floor and the robber now resumed his search for valuables.

Ares now lay on the floor letting out an occasional moan of pain and an occasional mumble as well. "Gods, what a way for the former God of War to go? Hmph! Taken out by a common burglar! Fates! Couldn't you have at least let me die with some dignity left?"

"Ah, this looks like it'll fetch at least 20 dinars when I sell it at market." Philicus said eyeing Ares' necklace, then he bent down and yanked it from Ares' neck.

Ares was becoming less and less aware of what was going on but he still heard what the Philicus had said about selling his necklace. "Man takes the God of War's necklace and says 'It'll at least fetch 20 dinars' ignorant mortal, if you only kne....." 

"Aren't you dead?!" Then he lifted his sword again to shove into Ares' chest. Ares, who was now almost completely unconscious, only murmered something as Plilicus thrust the sword into his body one last time. Philicus then continued his search.

*****

The portal now became cloudy and unclear. Aphrodite was now wiping tears away. Xena stood there, not quit believing what she had just seen. "Xena?" whispered Aphrodite. "Would you still like to see him?" Xena nodded.

The goddess lead Xena down corridor after corridor until they finally came to a large set of heavy looking double doors. Despite their weight Aphrodite opened them as if they were nothing. Xena looked around the dim, candlelit room. It was filled with the coffins of the Gods Xena had killed. There were two rows of them, one on the left side of the room and the other on the right. Each coffin was a different color, probably according to the dead god or goddess's favorite color. Flowers and a few candles lay in front of each one and so did something that repressed what the god's job; like for Athena, a few books, a loom, and her sword were on top of her coffin. At the end of the room sat Zeus and Hera's thrones, that were covered in candles, flowers and things that repressed the jobs as well, crowns were also laying in the seats.

"I know what you're thinking. This is waaaay morbid for me to do, but they're my family and they deserve this much." Aphrodite sheepishly said. 

"No, I understand, and it's not morbid. This one belongs to Ares?" Xena motioned toward a large black marble coffin.

Aphrodite nodded. "I'm glad you found his sword, I looked all over that pigsty he called a home for it. I'll give you some privacy." She then left the room, closing the doors behind her. 

Xena felt as though she needed to see Ares' face one last time so she moved the coffin lid down enough that she could see him. He looked as if he was only sleeping and a part of her almost expected him to turn over or open his eyes. Xena sighed as she thought of all they had been through. She had known him since the time she was only a girl. The thought of him dying and no longer being a part of her life had never occurred to her. Even when he gave up his godhood to save Eve and Gabrielle she hadn't thought that he would die before her. Now he was dead, lying in a coffin, and she had never even told him how she felt.

She had told him that he had always got to her, a year ago. But it had been more than that. She had loved him but never admitted it to anyone because there was no way that a relationship with Ares would ever work; so it was no use in getting anyone's hopes up. Now Xena wished she could have told him even if it wouldn't have worked.

"I Loved you, but it wouldn't have worked. We could never have been together. Forgive me for not telling you this, but I didn't want you to think we had a chance." Whispered Xena, even though it was to late for him to hear her say it. 

She put the lid back in place then gently set his sword on top if the coffin. "Good bye" she said as she got up and left the room.

FIN


End file.
